E. M. [Aleksandrova's] plan—to go to Moscow, settle there, meet with Sonya [G. M. and Z. P. Krzizhanovsky] and restore the Organizational Committee.

In view of this, I think Peter [Trotsky's] principal task should consist in strengthening Petersburg. I learned that Rerikh, that fellow who escaped from exile in Petersburg, is still working there—the one whom, if I recall, the Citizen [Krasnukha] wrote about, saying they had got along perfectly well. Petrashkevich [Strumilin-Dneprovich], who brought us information about the Petersburg split, says that Rerikh is taking a conciliatory position in the struggle there. If Peter [Trotsky] manages to get along with him, perhaps the matter will be easier. Here there is also one woman worker of my acquaintance who wants to go to Petersburg—sufficiently decisive and thoroughly "Iskrist." I promised her help with a passport (incidentally, since she is Jewish, could we not obtain for her in Whitechapel a letter from the wife of some escaped worker; description—brunette, medium height, age uncertain); now she is raising the question of financial support. (She is truly starving.) I asked Ek. M. [Aleksandrova] to make her acquaintance and size her up: I do not trust my own judgment—I find her unsympathetic, but Luba,¹ if I recall, defended her and was prepared to use her. If E. M. [Aleksandrova] decides that she might be useful to Peter [Trotsky] in Petersburg, then so be it. So, Peter [Trotsky's] business is Petersburg. Let him concentrate better on that, and the Organizational Committee shall fall entirely on E. M. [Aleksandrova], Kurtz [Lengnik] and Sonya [G. M. and Z. P. Krzizhanovsky], who absolutely must be taken from her present position. Acquaint Peter [Trotsky] with Vladimir Ilyich's letter to Ereme² and explain in more detail how matters should be conducted in Petersburg: he is, after all, very inexperienced. Concerning Moscow, we think as follows: Zaichka³ with Vasily's [E. M. Aleksandrova's] arrival can be directed either to Petersburg as well, or else, as he intended, to the Financial section. Among other things, in addition to other data, send Vasily [E. M. Aleksandrova] all those of the notorious "connections" of Boris Nikolaevich Noskov that are marked with the word "money." Probably these connections are less hopeless than all the others. Concerning the work of the Organizational Committee itself, I have arrived at the following conclusion: to rush toward a congress at all costs is dangerous. The forces are not prepared for victory at a congress where all committees will be represented. If matters continue to proceed in such haphazard fashion as now, then one decisive step will remain: an agreement (by means of a congress, conference, or a visit to all "our" committees: Petersburg, Moscow, Tver, Nizhny, Saratov, Kiev, Kharkov, Southern Worker, Northern Union) to the effect that "Iskra" is the central organ, that the given committees unite into one organization, appoint a Central Committee, and invite the remaining groups outside the agreement to enter into agreement with the Central Committee. On condition that we have a majority of our people in the mentioned committees, such a path would remain the only means to achieve swift unification without the inevitable—in case of haste with a general congress—need to enter into compromise with the Union and Struggle. Small Russian groups will easily attach themselves to a whole formed in such a way; committees like the Odessa and Ekaterinoslav ones will of course kick up a fuss, but the Central Committee will then direct all forces against them and probably conquer them, and if not, it is no great scandal if 2-3 committees declare that they do not recognize the legality of the restoration of the party; and with the Bund, of course, one will have to wage genuine struggle then. This, consequently, is a plan for the worst case; E. M. [Aleksandrova] approves of it; write how you and Vladimir Ilyich regard it. We have not communicated it to Peter [Trotsky] and Krokhmaly: to Peter [Trotsky] because we have decided to concentrate all his attention on Petersburg; and to Krokhmaly because in general we pursue a policy of not telling him everything—it is quieter that way. We did not tell him that Peter [Trotsky] will soon go to Russia and that E. M. [Aleksandrova] will do the same. He is offended, sensing that we are not entirely frank with him, but in the end, this will be beneficial for him.

Now one more interesting matter: today a certain gentleman came to Krokhmaly (with a recommendation) and reported the following: he is a member of a group of zemstvo employees (mainly agronomists) in Novgorod province who are conducting systematic propaganda and agitation among the peasants of their province. The group was formed by people who undertook the work individually; using official agronomist conferences, they organize their own conferences and so far have conducted matters without exposure (for more than a year). Through Rubakin⁴ they established contact with some socialist-revolutionaries who supplied them with brochures of the "Agrarian League."⁵ The gentleman, having come to Krokhmaly, spent 2 months here, and after listening to the discussion on a lecture, became possessed with the desire to obtain approval in his group for the agrarian program of "Iskra," which, he says, better corresponds to the conclusions they have reached in practice. (Land here is meager, non-chernozem, what kind of "socialization" could there be; we have decided to conduct and are conducting agitation chiefly on political grounds and set as our main task the struggle against the tsarist prejudices of the peasants.) So he wants to connect his group with us, promises materials, asks for help with literature, for the publication of agitation brochures and leaflets for peasants, and for technical help in printing their own local proclamations. He wishes to convene a conference of his people (in Novgorod) at the time of the zemstvo assembly (toward mid-December), where our person should appear who 1) will help him obtain approval of our agrarian program—he evidently does not rely on his own strength; 2) will connect the group with the Russian organization for the aforementioned purposes. He himself is going there for the conference.

I proposed to him: our person will arrive on the 15th of December (by which time they will all have gathered), they will constitute themselves as a definite social-democratic propaganda group among peasants (they do not consider it conspiratorial to name the locality publicly), which will declare its recognition of our agrarian program; we will supply them with general literature, all-Russian leaflets, which they can and are willing to distribute in the villages; they will supply materials for brochures for peasants and seek authors among themselves for such brochures, and at the conference they will outline themes for brochures for us. Finally, local proclamations at their request can be executed by the Russian organization. They have liberal connections as well, and if we direct them, it seems to me these connections can be utilized. So far they are acting only in their province, but they have connections in others and the group can expand. I think that for conducting matters with them, Lady⁶ is most suitable now. She is still full of "foreign" theoretical discussions and will be able to explain to them what they still do not understand. Therefore I propose that she (or Zaichka [G. I. Okulova], so that he might take care of the possibility of fulfilling obligations of a practical character) leave for them at once. One should be there by the 15th of December, appear at the provincial zemstvo assembly, and there find the provincial agronomist Alexander Adamovich Lyust; he is a thoroughly decent and sympathetic person; ask him to introduce you to the Demyansk agronomist Zaloga (this is the one I saw) and tell him "I have arrived with a commission from an old friend." One should arrive 15th-17th at the latest. If Lady [Meshcheryakov] cannot go, it is necessary that someone else go—there should be someone at the Old Woman's [Moscow]. I believe that under the supervision of Vasily [E. M. Aleksandrova], Lady [Meshcheryakov] will be able to utilize this group.

I am enclosing some of the materials sent to me, then a note I have written and a finished letter from Kurtz [Lengnik] (I do not know if you still need it).

Write here for now—I hardly expect to leave before 2 weeks—it is very necessary to do battle here with Chernov, on whom the socialist-revolutionaries are now placing all their hopes. Our shares, it seems, stand high.

Tell L. Gr. [Deych] that the information I have obtained concerning David⁷ is so far insufficiently definite. There are altogether 2 French printing shops where they can take a non-union worker; I will find out soon how to penetrate there. I also forgot to answer him on one question: voting ballots for voting on Lalayants and others⁸ let him send separately—to Leiteyzen in his village and to Krokhmaly and Maltsm[an Boris]⁹ here.

So far I have obtained only 3 chemical books and of those 2 are devilishly thick.

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*¹ Lyubov Nikolaevna Radchenko.

*² Letter to Ereme (Anatoly Abramovich Shneerson)—the celebrated "Letter to a Comrade on Our Organizational Tasks" by N. Lenin, which at that time existed only in handwritten copies. First printed after the split—in 1904. (See Collected Works, vol. IV, p. 157.)

*³ Zaichka—Glafiра Ivanovna Okulova-Theodorovich at the time of "Iskra" was closely connected with the Petersburg organization, and at the time to which Martov's letter refers, she was to move to Moscow to take N. E. Bauman's place. See note 4 to letter 7.

*⁴ Apparently N. A. Rubakin, a well-known writer-popularizer, author of many popular brochures on natural science.

*⁵ The "Agrarian League"—a foreign organization of socialist-revolutionaries, aimed at publishing books on the agrarian question and propaganda in the countryside.

*⁶ Nikolai Leonidovich Meshcheryakov, party pseudonym "Lady," a former People's Will member who joined the social-democrats in the late 90s. At the time to which the commented letter refers, Meshcheryakov was already a professional of "Iskra" and worked in Moscow. After the second congress Meshcheryakov joined the Bolsheviks. Now a communist.

*⁷ Who is meant could not be established.

*⁸ Apparently for the acceptance of I. Kh. Lalayants into the "Foreign League of Russian Revolutionary Social-Democracy."

*⁹ Boris Maltsман, Iskrist, social-democrat from the 90s. In 1902 was arrested in the "Iskra" case in Kiev, together with nine comrades escaped from Kiev prison on August 18, 1902.